Nonprofits Must 'Raise the Bar' in Fundraising, Commonfund Whitepaper Finds

Griswold and Jarvis offer a look into the current state of giving to endowed institutions and the forces that may influence it in the future. Perhaps most important is the structural change that has occurred over the last 20 years in leading institutions’ thinking about the development process. Whereas fundraising was at one time viewed as a tactical function for the organization, taking the form primarily of annual fund drives supplemented by occasional larger-scale but discrete capital campaigns, it has now become the norm for leading endowed nonprofits to staff and manage the fundraising function as a strategic contributor to the long-term health of the institution, with annual giving, endowment giving, planned giving and bequests each forming a part of the whole.